Leading
questions always collect inaccurate information.
At a recent celebrated trial, the following leading question was put
successively to nine distinguished medical men. "Can you attribute these
symptoms to anything else but poison?" And out of the nine, eight
answered "No!" without any qualification whatever. It appeared, upon
cross-examination:--1. That none of them had ever seen a case of the
kind of poisoning supposed. 2. That none of them had ever seen a case of
the kind of disease to which the death, if not to poison, was
attributable. 3. That none of them were even aware of the main fact of
the disease and condition to which the death was attributable.
Surely nothing stronger can be adduced to prove what use leading
questions are of, and what they lead to.
I had rather not say how many instances I have known, where, owing to
this system of leading questions, the patient has died, and the
attendants have been actually unaware of the principal feature of the
case.
[Sidenote: As to food patient takes or does not take.]
It is useless to go through all the particulars, besides sleep, in which
people have a peculiar talent for gleaning inaccurate information.
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